The business group which represents the largest retail and leisure companies in the Oxford Street and Regent Street area is holding a ballot on an expanded business improvement district (BID).

Map of BID.
Living room. The New West End Company is balloting businesses on a three-year plan and larger BID area. Click image to see detail. Source: New West End Company BID renewal.

The New West End Company works in a public-private partnership with Westminster Council and provides business services and lobbies on behalf of its members. It is seeking a new BID term to run from April 2018 to March 2021 and is asking hundreds of the largest businesses in the area to vote on its three-year plan which includes a wider catchment area than the existing district.

The expanded area will include additional streets in Fitzrovia, Marylebone, Mayfair and Soho (pink areas on map). Businesses in the retail, food, beverage, and hotel sectors with a rateable value of £400,000 or more will be balloted and have to pay a levy of between 0.5 percent and 0.65 percent of their rateable value if the business plan is approved.

NWEC has recently found itself in conflict with residents groups in the areas surrounding Oxford Street when it came out in support of mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to pedestrianise the street. Paradoxically the business group is also at odds with businesses which are collectively even more opposed to pedestrianisation: 60 percent are unequivocally against, a further 16 percent with concerns, and only 19 percent are fully in favour of the scheme, according to the consultation carried out by Transport for London and Westminster Council.

The ballot for the BID renewal runs from 14 November to 14 December with the results announced on 15 December, just in time for Christmas 2017.

New West End Company BID proposal 2018-2021.